Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films sent along an unpleasant press release today confirming that the much ballyhooed Halo film has indeed been put on hold after Fox and Universal backed out for some inexplicable reason.

The release reads:

"As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait."

This is a total Bummer. But Doesn't Microsoft basically print money? Why can't they just pony up? Weird.

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